Bihar election 2025: Voting across remaining 122 constituencies of 243 assembly seats in Bihar will take place in Bihar, at 6 pm, the battleground of Bihar will be seen curtains drawing an intense political fight at end. The first phase saw historic 64.66% voter turnout on Nov 6, during the first phase of Bihar election.
The contest between the NDA and Mahagathbandhan (MGB) is the prime battle, which is so intense that at times, the margin of victory has been quite thin. And then there are seats that even trouble the candidates.
The swing seats of Bihar
There is a concept of swing states in the US. What are these? Well as the name suggests, these are the states that have had the history of changing loyalties. At times they have chosen Democrats, and then in the next elections, they went with the Republicans; hence, swing states.
The elections in the US and Bihar are no way similar, but the phenomenon of swing seats is. There are certain seats in Bihar, where voters have defied the so-called political narratives, waves or the general flow. These seats are key to both sides as apart from their bastion, winning these seats increases their numbers and chances to come to power.
15 key swing seats in Bihar
Barbigha: JD(U)’s Sudarshan Kumar had won the seat by a close margin of 113 votes in 2020, defeating Congress. He managed to retain the seat that he won in 2015 as a Congress candidate, with a bigger margin of 15,717 votes. This time, he is up against Congress leader Trisuldhari Singh. The pattern suggests the seat has some loyalty with Congress, but not very strong. The 202 election is an example that the grand-old party has a challenge to win it back.
In the Lok Sabha elections last year, the NDA’s BJP won with a significant lead of 29,072 votes.
Bachhwara: The seat is seeing a friendly contest among the members of Mahagathbandhan as Congress fielded its youth wing leader Prakash Garib Das, while CPI’s former MLA Awadesh Roy is also contesting from here. BJP’s Surendra Mehata is the sitting MLA from this seat.
He won the seat in 2020, which was with Congress since 2015.
Bhorey: With a lean margin of 462 votes, JDU(U)’s Sunil Kumar won the seat in 2020 against Congress’ Anil Kumar and CPI(ML)’s Jitendra Paswan. This time too, Bhorey will see a straight contest between the NDA and the Left. The seat was with Anil Kumar in 2015 who had win it by 74,365 votes.
The contest is a tense one between the left’s Dhananjay against Sunil Kumar.
Ramgarh: Sudhakar Singh of the RJD had won the seat by a narrow margin of 189 votes. His nearest rival was Ambika Singh Yadav (BSP). Priot to this in 2015, BJP’s Ashok Kumar Singh won the seat. Kumar is facing RJD’s Ajit Kumar this time. It will be interesting to see if the RJD retains the seat, or loses it to BJP.
Chakai: Voters in Chakai, last time in 2020, chose independent candidate Sumit Kumar Singh who beat RJD’s Savitri Devi by a margin of 581 votes. In 2015, Savitri had defeated Sumit Kumar Singh (IND) by a margin of 12,113 votes. The two are back again in the fight with a third player in the game – Jan SuraajJan Suraaj Party’s Rahul Kumar.
Kurhani: This is super-swing seat which even saw a bypoll in 2022. RJD’s Anil Kumar Sahni is the sitting MLA. He emerged victorious in 2020.
In 2015, BJP candidate Kedar Prasad Gupta won from the seat. This time, BJP’s Kedar Gupta, RJD leader Sunil Kumar Suman and JSP’s Mohammad Ali Irfan fought against each other.
Dehri: RJD’s Phate Bahadur Singh managed to defeat BJP’s Satyanarayan Singh by a margin of just 464 votes in 2020. Five years prior to it in 2015 RJD’s Mohammad Iliyas Hussain had won the seats.
However, this time the NDA has fielded Chirag Paswan‘s Lok Janshakti Party’s (Ram Vilas) Rajeev Ranjan Singh against RJD’s Guddu Kumar Chandrawansi.
Bakhri: The seat was with the RJD’s Upendra Paswan after the 2015 elections, which was later won by CPI’s Suryakant Paswan in 2020. He defeated BJP’s Ramshankar Paswan
Paswan is again in the battle and against him is LJP (RV)’s Sanjay Kumar.
Matihani: LJP contested Bihar elections alone in 2020 and Mathihani is one of the few seats it won. Its candidate Raj Kumar Singh defeated JD(U)’s Narendra Kumar Singh by a margin of just 333 votes.
Singh was then a sitting MLA as he had won the seat by defeating his nearest rival Sarvesh Kumar (BJP) in 2015. Bihar election 2025, saw JD(U)’s Raj Kumar Singh against RJD’s Narendra Kumar Singh again.
Hilsa: RJD leader Atri Muni alias Shakti Singh Yadav had won the seat in 2015. Come 2020, the seat went to JD(U) after Krishnamurari Sharan, popularly known as Prem Mukhiya, defeated Yadav in 2020.
The two are facing each other again in one of the high-stake battles in the state.
Harlakhi: Shaligram Yadav of the JD(U) won the seat in 2010, while the seat went to BLSP’s Basant Kumar in 2015. In the 2020 election, Sudhanshu Shekhar won the seat for JD(U). This time, Sudhanshu Shekhar contested from JD(U) and is up against CPI’s Rakesh Kumar Pandey.
Chenari: Shyam Bihari Ram of the JD(U) bagged the seat in the 2010 Bihar election. In the next polls in 2015, BLSP’s Lalan Paswan won it, while in 2020, the seat swayed again and Congress’ Murari Prasad Gautam won election here. Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party (RLJP)’s Asha Paswan, Congress’ Mangal Ram and LJP (RV)’s Murari Prasad Gautam are in the contest.
Valmiki Nagar: JD(U)’s Rajesh Singh won the seat in 2010 election, but independent candidate Dhirendra Pratap Singh proved heavier than all and won in 2015. He later joined JD(U), and won from the seat in the last assembly election. Singh is again in fray against Congress’ Surendra Yadav.
Govindganj: JD(U) leader Meena Dwivedi won the seat in 2010, but the party lost the constituency in 2015 to Chirag Paswan’s LJP. In 2020, the BJP’s Sunil Mani Tiwari won the polls. LJP (RV)’s Raju Tiwari contested from the seat against Congress’ Shashi Bhushan Singh and Jan Suraaj’s Krishna Kant Mishra.
Warsaliganj: A key seat in Bihar, Warsaliganj was won by Pradip Kumar of JD(U) in 2010. In 2015, it went to BJP’s Aruna Devi, and she went on to win it again in 2020 elections on the saffron party’s ticket. RJD’s Anit is up from the seat against BJP’s incumbent Aruna Devi.